Learning is the Key

Once people experience the joy of learning how to reverse years of suffering from back, neck, knee, hip pain, etc., they often ask, “Why haven’t I heard about Hanna Somatic Education before?”

Believe me, it’s frustrating for all of us who traversed the long road of countless, ineffective therapies, sometimes taking decades to finally cross paths with Hanna Somatics. And those of us who have gained much from it, often find ourselves becoming lured into making this our life’s work. Thanks to the Internet, Hanna Somatics is gaining a broader following.

This is a different type of education, it’s about learning through movement. You learn slow, gentle movements that release repetitive use tension and tension resulting from injuries that is held in your brain/muscles. With repeated practice, you will relieve your own chronic tension/pain and improve stiff joints, poor posture, or repetitive stress injuries. It’s a unique form of mind-body training, or more technically, neuromuscular training. In any case, once you learn it, it is yours to use, as needed, for the rest of your life.

Somatics Founder, Thomas Hanna

The founder, Thomas Hanna, began his career and reached acclaim in the field of Philosophy before he began training with Moshe Feldenkrais in the early 1970s. Hanna saw great potential in heightening sensory awareness through movement and over time his work went in a slightly different direction. Hanna brought together his knowledge of the sensory motor system with the proven science of neurophysiology. This powerful combination of sensory awareness combined with motor learning is the key to what makes Hanna Somatic Education different from just about everything available today. This is not bodywork nor therapy. It is education. Only you can change muscle tension levels in your own body. We know from neurophysiology that our brains control muscle tension, period. No one outside our bodies can effect lasting change in our musculature. We must do it ourselves through voluntary movement and motor learning. Hanna Somatic Education provides the system by which we can take control back and reset poor posture patterns that lead to tension, discomfort and chronic pain. Resistance-release therapies are becoming more popular today than ever before. But only Somatics puts the client front and center. Our aim to teach you what you need to do to help yourself. We design custom programs to focus on your unique situation. Think of your Somatic Educator as your muscular-system re-calibration coach.

What Kind of Results Can I Expect?

Most people gain substantial relief from three to five private sessions. The system is built around resetting the tension levels in the core trunk muscles, working outward to the body’s extremities. People are often surprised at how painful conditions of the feet/hands are eased as the center of the body releases from the brain’s grip on the core trunk muscles. Once you’ve learned the basics, you are set. Say, for instance, you decide to clean out the garage next weekend and your back becomes stiff and pain starts before you’re halfway done. Most people push through the pain, thinking that there will be plenty of time to rest when we’re done. But there is a better way, when you know Hanna Somatics. When back pain starts, you take a 5-minute Somatics break, release your back tension, and get back to work with greater strength, balance and coordination. What more could you ask for?